The Swiss will be fine and will sail through. Time will tell but I don't think they'll be able to take apart CMR and ECU like Japan will. And if that's the case they would have come second anyway.
I think defensively speaking in the midfield, Japan allowed Switzerland to much room in the last 30 minutes of the game and focused on getting everyone behind the ball first and wait for a counter attack. Japan imposed a structure on the game which I believe slowed things down and made Switzerland look good in the latter stages. I think Switzerland will have an awkward game vs Cameroon
The Swiss were the first team to qualify for the World Cup coming out of a group undefeated that had Denmark and Iceland.
I really don't think so. Japan are pretty good at coordinated pressing and yet Switzerland were able to comfortably knock the ball around all over the pitch. Cameroon's defense hasn't really been tested yet and I would be surprised if it turned out they can defend as a team. They looked good against Ecuador but will likely look bad against both Japan and Switzerland which are roughly on the same level. I predict 0-2 or 0-3 for their last two group games.
Too me, that is not out of line of what is generally allowed for keepers to protect themselves, but the call was made and that's that. I was surprised at the call and the card. Then why no dogso?
I know it's the thing to say Ivory Coast are clearly the worst team at this world cup, but based on what I've taken away from watching group C in action, in keeping with much of the aesthetics of this whole world cup, I'm thinking Ecuador another glorified extension to Canada 2015's vibe of U-17/20 tournament here... To me, not only do Ecuador look like a youth team physically, but some of the simple tactical mistakes they produced in aiding Cameroon's goal tally.... I can only imagine the horror their first ever World Cup game would have produced vs a team like Germany... I didn't see anything to make me believe both Japan and Switzerland won't make easy work of Cameroon either, but with the Swiss being known to be rather erratic, who knows... we could have just seen their very best tournament performance in their first group match vs Japan. Japan clearly misses 2011 Sawa, and their once rare in women's football deployment of constantly overlapping full backs too; but given their superior ability to remain compact and soak up pressure, once the knock out rounds begin, I wouldn't be surprised to see Japan find a way to progress further than what the tournaments form guide suggests. Plus this is old news now, but it's pretty obvious the tournaments awful use of turf, definitely favours the teams with powerful dribbling, and play focused around utilizing lofted long balls. So it will be interesting to see how a team like Japan can adjust.
On the PK, the live view was hard to tell but the replay from behind the keeper showed the attacker pulled up a little while the keeper went in full force with knee very high . You could say it was 60-40
This Swiss looked very composed on the ball. Staying even in possession with the Japanese is a feat most teams can not manage. Now they need the last pass and finish.
I dunno, this was not Japan circa 2011. They gave the ball away. A lot. Switzerland was a debutante and all, but I wasn't that impressed on a pure footballing ability.
Keepers are allowed to protect themselves like that if they are under the ball and jump straight up. They can't run 5 yards into an opponent and lead with the knees. No DOGSO because there was a Swiss defender in the picture.
The nail in Japan's coffin. From a tactical aspect, Ando was Japan's most crucial player of the 2011 title winning team, doing the link-up play between midfield and attack. They don't really have any other player capable of performing that role. On the other hand, this might force Sasaki to change his tactics and switch to a system with a lone centre-forward, which would probably a good thing with three easy matches to go. Still doesn't seem very likely, though.
And Sakaguchi, who was the equal link between the defense and midfield last go-round, was a shadow of her former, World Cup, self. All in all, not good.
If you say so. There are challenges like that everyday by keepers not called or carded. I can also see how you could argue that it was careless, but it is not an "everytime" call.
Referees assigned for round 2 of the group stage: Switzerland – Ecuador Referee: Rita Gani (MAS) Assistant Referee 1: Widiya Shamsuri (MAS) Assistant Referee 2: Sarah Ho (AUS) Fourth Official: Gladys Lengwe (ZAM) Japan – Cameroon Referee: Pernilla Larsson (SWE) Assistant Referee 1: Anna Nystrom (SWE) Assistant Referee 2: Natalie Aspinall (ENG) Fourth Official: Tupou Patia (COK)
Estimated win probabilities using the FIFA ratings: Japan (2066) .97 over Cameroon (1455) Switzerland (1813) .87 over Ecuador (1485) After Cameroon's demolition of Ecuador on Matchday One, Japan/Cameroon will be interesting to see if we can get a better sense of how strong Cameroon is, Cameroon being a good example of a team that's hard to reliably rate using match results and strength of schedule factors (the rating of opponents, in other words). To be honest, while playing with the numbers last week, I saw some reason to upgrade Nigeria's rating, I didn't see a lot of reason to upgrade Cameroon's significantly, perhaps only from 1455 to around 1500. That implies a reason to downgrade Ecuador instead.